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Let’s take a close look at the proclaimed targets of the protests, taxes and fascism.

Revolution! 

Last week, scores of conservatives took to the streets and emptied their teabags in protest of two main perceived injustices: first, taxation without representation, hearkening back to the days when the Sons of Liberty stuck it to the British for taxes imposed without elected representation; and second, fascism, hearkening back to the days when … the Reichstag burned? 

This movement, propelled by CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s February 2009 on-air rant about the Obama Administration’s stimulus bill, is intriguing, to say the least.  In the interest of trying to understand what compelled tens of hundreds of citizens to do things like wear hats festooned with dangling tea-bags as testaments to their “burning desire to restore freedom,” I have decided to look a little more closely at their complaints and claims. 

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First, I find it particularly fascinating that the protesters seem to have missed the fact that their taxes are imposed by – you guessed it – their elected representatives.  Perhaps the idea is that if their preferred representatives aren’t in charge, they aren’t truly being represented.  In other words, the only way they can have true representation is if their leaders are in a permanent position of power, as in, oh, I don’t know, a fascist regime?  But more on that later…

These tax day protests are also interesting in light of the recent spate of tax cuts passed by the Obama Administration.  Perhaps some of the protestors are among the roughly 2% of the American population who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year—and thus will have their taxes returned to the level they were prior to the GW Bush era—but watching coverage of the gatherings, I get the feeling that not all these protestors are pulling in that kind of dough.

More disturbing than even the tea bag hats, however, is the charge of fascism, led by Fox News “reporter” Cody Willard.  And with no apparent understanding of politics or history, a number of protesters carried signs depicting President Obama as Adolph Hitler.  In order to unravel the links between President Obama and Herr Hitler, let’s get back to basics: what were the building blocks of fascism and Nazism?

Well, first there was hyper-nationalism.  Patriotism (which is generally used by such regimes as a pretty word for nationalism) was exalted above all else, and those who questioned their leaders were seen as unpatriotic and suffered the consequences of such status.  That sounds familiar, though it is reminiscent of a previous administration, and not the current one—I mean, I may be asleep at the wheel, but when did the Obama administration exalt love of the state above the individual?  In fact, wasn’t the complaint earlier that he was insufficiently nationalistic?  Now he’s overly so?  Thinking back, though, I do recall a recent administration, in order to rally the country to war, questioning the patriotism of dissenters.  Does anyone else remember that?

Next, as we all know, the best accessory for hyper-nationalism is militarism and a drive toward war, and the Nazi regime married these elements together deftly, even making war against countries that had not threatened them and carrying out unprovoked invasions of other sovereign countries. 

Again, where have I heard of such things happening…? 

Further, the short list of those persecuted by the Nazis includes Jews, Roma, homosexuals, and socialists.  Since President Obama recently hosted a Passover Seder, reached out in friendship to the Muslim world, and hasn’t been cracking down on the gay community, I’m not getting the connection there, either.  Perhaps the president is not only a radical black Christian and a secret Muslim—he’s a Jew in disguise, as well.  What do you expect from an elitist, socialist terrorist?

And finally, who can forget the fact that fascism is characterized by leaders with unlimited control?  Recently released Bush Administration memos expose the twisted legal reasoning used by the Administration to allow President Bush to violate any provision of the Constitution at any time.  Rather than continue in this vein, the Obama Administration has exposed and condemned that type of unaccountable leadership.  Further, unlike any fascist in history, President Obama has been working hard to repair foreign relations, even with those we perceive as potential enemies, and in doing so, he has been criticized for being too weak.  A true fascist would be appalled by such peacemaking efforts.

And I won’t even get into the Nazi regime’s use of torture or its espionage against its own people, because I think you get my point.

Still, as liberals insisted during the Bush Administration, protest is patriotic.  So here’s to the patriots, teabags in hand.  At this rate you will ensure that in the America of the future, the Green Party will be the party of the left, the Democrats will be the party of the right, and the Republicans will have gone the way of the Whigs.